Glass 




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THE SECRET HISTORY 



OF THE 



PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 



Letter of General H." M. Naglee about 
General McClellan. 



A mm FioH m sni!; to tih iiiihy. 



THE ADDRESS TO THE ARMY AND NAVY, 

ADOPTED AT HOPE CHAPEL, 
On Wednesday Evening, September 28th, 1864, 



BY THE 



McCLELLAN LEGION. 



SOLD at 13 PARK ROW, and at all Democratic Newspaper Offices. 



4 



I pray Almighty God to deliver you and your army 
from all peril, and load you on to victory. 
Yours, trulv, 

EDWIN M. STANTON. 

Now, Judge, what think you of this man, 
wlio, made Secretary of War by the request 
and iufluenco of General McClellan, was vih- 
fying and abusing and uttering falsehoods 
against him, and who could at the same time 
sit down and deliberately write such a letter? 

Tou have referred to the council of war held 
in Washington in March of 1862. Every effort 
lias been made in vain to bring tlie proceedings 
of that council before the public. A call was 
made for them in the House of Kepresentatives 
and was tabled by the Republican party. A re- 
quest made by the recorder of that council, of 
Mr. Stanton, to allow him to have tlie pro- 
ceedings made up in proiier form, was refused 
in a most rude and insulting i^anner, and the 
papers have never been allowed to leave his 
possession since. 

Now, Judge, for your especial benefit, I will 
relate the h. story of that important event, that 
yon may, if you will, do justice to all con- 
cerned. 

The council of war consisted of Brigadier- 
Generals Sumner, McDowell, Franklin, F. J. 
Porter, McCall, lleintzelman, Keyes, A. Por- 
ter, W. F. Sraitli, Barnard, Blenker and Nagle?, 
each entitled to but " one star." It was called 
togetlier by order of General McClellan on the 
night of March 7, 1862, to eouvene at ten A. M. 
on the following day. 

General McClellan came into the council 
room at the hour appointed, and placing on the 
table a large map, explained his proposed Pen- 
insular campaign, which, 'before this time, I be- 
lieve to have been known to no one present ex- 
cepting General Franklin and probably Fitz J. 
Porter. Upon retiring he left upon the table, 
for the consideration of the council, the follow- 
ing inquiries: 

1. — Whether it is advisable that the base of 
operations shall be changed, the transportation 
being ready at Annai)olis in all of next week? 

2. — Whether it is better to make an advance 
to the front before changing the base, should 
such a cliange be determined upon ? 

8. — Wliether a forward movement, with the 
object of destroying the river batteries, is ad- 
visable, and when it can be commenced, and 
whether the naval force, witli tlie assistance of 
the Ericsson battery, can alone accomplish 
tliat object ? 

After a session of three hours the council 
were summoned to appear before the President. 
lie advised them that he was quite unwell and 
exceedingly nervous ; that the pressure had 
been intense against General McClellan. lie 
expressed himself gratified to have the oppor- 
tuuity to sec and know the officers of the army, 
and to be instructed by them in regard to army 
matters, which were to him very incomprelien- 
sible. 

I informed him that^ aa recorder of the coun- 



cil of war which had held its session by order 
of Gen. McClellan, I would advise him of the 
result of its proceedings, and then read them to 
him. " AVhat, said he, " have the council de- 
cided by a vote of eight to four — two to one — 
in favor of the Peninsular campaign?" He 
then asked many questions in regard to the 
same, until Mr. Stanton came in, and I pro- 
posed to read the proceedings to him. He re- 
plied, " Give me the papers, I'll read them my- 
self," and, after reading them over and prepar- 
ing his notes, he, as you say, " put them (the 
council) through the strict course 'of examina- 
tion " which you refer to. This examination, 
made for the purpose of neutralizing the eftect 
of the decision of the council of war on the 
mind of the President, and thus carry out th^ 
objects of those who had been insisting upon 
the removal of General McClellan, lasted for 
four or five hours, during which time it was 
only interrupted by an occasional expression of 
the President, indicating his satisfaction and 
gratification at the many explanations of mili- 
tary movements contemplated, and which he 
had not before been able to comprehend. 

It was now getting dark. Mr. Stanton's , 
questions indicated approaching exhaustion, and 
finding there was a silence which called for a 
cessation of hostilities on his part for tlie night, 
Mr. Lincoln expressed himself highly gratified 
with tlie interview, snid ho was impressed with 
the earnestness and intelligence of the officers 
y)res9nt, and that he had every confidence in 
them. He was now deterniincd not to remove 
General McClellan, as lie had promised to do, 
but thiit he should make his campaign, as ap- 
proved by the council of war, under restrictions 
which he woidd niake known on the following 
morning, at ten o'clock, when he desired the 
presence of all the officers of the council, and 
until after which time he desired that none of 
them should leave the city. 

Before leaving the President the recorder of 
the council approached the Secretary and said : 
— " If you please, Mr. Stanton, permit me to 
have the proceedings of the council of war, 
that they may be copied in a fair hand, and 
General Sumner, the president of the council, 
will sign them, the recorder will sign them, and 
they will then be in proper form." "I'm jitst 
as good a judge of the form as you are," was 
the reply of your friend. 

Other incivilities have been attempted by 
Mr. Stanton towards me, the manner and re- 
sult of wliich he has neither forgotten nor for- 
given, and which he may relate to you when- 
ever ho may feel so disposed. 

On the following morning, at the appointed 
hour, when all of the officers of the council of 
war had assembled, Mr. Lincoln said : — " I have 
slept better tliau for two weeks. I feel relieved 
of an -immense responsibility. I have deter- 
mined upon the following programme," which 
he submitted verbally, and which was substan- 
tially as follows: — 
,^; " I will permit General McClellan to carry 



5 



out his campaign. Ho shall leave sufficient 
force to defend the works before Washington. 
He shall embark fifty thousand men from Au- 
rnipolis; and then, unless the batteries on the 
Potomac, which you assure mo will necessarily 
be abandoned, are withdrawn or silenced, I shall 
reserve my autliority to embark other troops." 
He then said, •' I have determined to divide 
General McClelhm's army into four corps, and 
I shall ap])oint the commanders of them." And 
afterwards he promoted the four officers who 
had opposed General McClellan's camiiaign, 
tlwee of whom he appointed to the command 
of corps, and, Avith the exception of Generals 
Franklin and Smith, who have been the subjects 
of constant annoyance and indignities since, the 
^otliers have all been dismissed from the army. 
The Peninsular campaign was proposed by 
General McClellan whilst commander-in-chief 
of the armies of the United States, and was in- 
tended to be made with the forces then under 
his command in Eastern Virginia, estimated at 
over two hundred thousand men. It was so 
accepted by tho President, and the movement 
was commenced upon that basis. General Mc- 
Clellan had scarcely left Washington to take the 
field when the Secretary of War relieved him 
of all the armies not under his (General Mc- 
Clellan's) immediate command, and assumed 
command of them himself. The troops left in 
Northeastern Virginia wei'e placed under the 
command of IfcDowell, Banks, Fremont and 
Sigel, each being independent of the other, and 
of General ilcClellan, and all subject to the 
order of Mr. Stanton. Whilst the above divi- 
sion of our army was taking place, the Confed- 
erates concentrated theirs until, on tlie 20th 
day of June, General McClellan found himself 
before Eichmond with eighty-five thousand 
men (including McCall's division), and was 
attacked by the concentrated Confederate force 
of one hundred and seventy-five thousand at 
the very moment when McDowell, under pro- 
test, withdrew his assistance from McClellan, 
by the orders of the President and Secretary of 
War. 

. The campaign under General Grant did not 
commence until the 4th of May, 1864. That 
of Chancellorsville, in whicli" the casualties of 
that army were estimated at thirty thousand 
men, and which, but for the providential kill- 
ing of Stonewall Jackson, would have been 
annihilated, was planned by the President and 
General Hooker, or to use the President's own 
words, " by Joe and I," of which the Secretary 
of War and General Halleck were kept pro- 
foundly ignorant, and was not commenced until 
May 2, 1863; whilst that of tho Peninsula, for 
the deliiy of which General McClellan was so 
much censured, was commenced on the 25th' 
of March, 1802, forty days in advance of cither 
of the others. 

Why this bitter enmity and persecution of 
General McClellan? why, in the beginning of 
March, was the President pressed to death to 
remove him, even before he had made his first 



trial in command of the Army of the Potomac? 
Why did a distinguished member of the Senate, 
on the 17th of March, write to ine : " The cry 
against McClellan is increasing; every effort is 
being made to crush him," What possible 
chance had General McClellan to succeed, when 
his own Government did everything in their 
power to embarrass his movements and break 
Inm down? One would think his task suffi- 
ciently onerous, laborious and responsible, 
when, without experience, after the first disas- 
trous rout at Bull Run, he reorganized the 
armies of the United States and was preparing 
to fight them without the additional conviction 
being forced upon him at every step that his 
own Government were determined "to crush 
him." 

Judge, you and I met within ten days after 
the dreadful battles before Richmond. You 
attacked General McClellan with a bitterness 
and feeling that ill becomes a Christian gentle- 
man. I then begged you not to break down 
General McClellan until you had given hin^a 
fair trial, and until you had found' a better 
man, and challenged you to name a better gen- 
eral. I now do the same thing, and appeal to 
the record of the past thirty months, and to the 
rivers of blood that have flown since, to sustain 
what I then asserted. I refer yon to the opin- 
dons of foreign officers", and I assure you that 
among the old officers of the army I shall be 
fully sustained. 

The preference of General McClellan for the 
Peninsular campaign, and the condemnation of 
the President's plan, have been fully sustained. 
The families and friends of the one hundred and 
thirty thousand men lost south of the Rapidan 
since the 4th of May last, proclaim it every- 
where. Mr. Stanton told the country at that 
time, he had, a hundred thousand men more 
than he wanted, and now he tells yon he wants 
a hundred thousand more men. 

General Grant crossed the Rapidan 
with an army variously estimated 
from 118,000 to . . . . 120,000 
He afterwards added Butler's . . 40,000 
He was recnforced .... 45,000 



Making, exclusive of Sigel's 30,000, . 205,000 

On the 1st of September, our forces were es- 
timated, exclusive of Sheridan's 30,000, at 
50,000. 

General Lee had on the Rapidan, after 

he had concentrated his array, . 85,000 

Beauregard joined him at Richmond 
with his forces from the South, 
which, with those near Petersburg, 
amounted to 80,000 

Breckinridge brought . . . 10,000 

And Lee was reenforced, probably, . 30,000 

Making, in all, . . . . 155,000 
On the 1st of September, hisforces were es 



6 



timated at Richmond at 45,000, exclusive of 
Early's command — 30,000 — showing the dis- 
charges and loss from General Grant to be 
150,000, and that of Lee to be 85,000. 

Judge Kelly, were the records of the council of 
war, and that of "the strict course of examina- 
tion" made by Mr. Stanton, indicating the very 
difficulties and dreadful losses General Grant 
has lately sustaimsd, ever placed before him? 
And wliy not? And who is responsible for the 
one hundred thousand men unnecessarily and 
wickedly sacrificed south of the Rapidan, in 
the experiment made to prove that General 
McClellari and the council of war were wrong, 
and that the President's plan was fight. 

The army of the United States, as you found 
it at the commencement of this war, was con:- 
posed of a high-toned, intelligent, honorable, 
gallant set of men, fully equal to the contest 
before them. They had always studionsly 
avoided all political connections ; maiiy of 
wj^om had been thirty years in the service of 
their country and had never voted. They held 
their country and the honor and integrity of it 
before every other consideration. Had a rule 
been adopted requiring that no political subject 
should be introduced into the army, but that all 
political rights should be respected, and had 
army othcers only been held responsible for the 
conduct of the war, it would have terminated 
long ago. 

Why have McOIellan, and Sedgwick, and 
McPherson, and Bayard, and Franklin, and 
Buell, and Meade, and Averill, and Porter, and 
a score of other general officers, with hundreds, 
if not thousands, of officers of an inferior grade, 
been offended and held back, and many of 
them dismissed from the army without a word 
of explanation — an arbitrary act unknown in 
Great Britain — while Pope, and Burnside, and 
Hooker, and Ihitler, and Hunter, and Banks, 
and Sigel, and Sickles, and hundreds of others, 
certainly no better than the former, have been 
preferred? "Why was Gen. Stone, than whom 
there is not a more loyal man and accomplished 
gentleman and gallant soldier in the country, 
confined in prison for fifteen months? And 
when released by an act of Congress. Avhy was 
it that neither the President, nor Secretary of 
War, nor Secretary of State, or otlier persons 
at Washington, would assent to any knowledge 
or any particii)ation in the arrest? Such out- 
rages are calculated to break down the honor 
and e»prit du corjys of any army, and all have 
looked on with disgust and horror and pain at 
the shameful injustice and outrages that have 
been continually heaped upon so many of their 
old friends and conn-ades in arms, whom they 
know incapable of an ungentlemanly, dishonor- 
able, nnsoldierly, or disloyal act. 

Why did the Committee on the Conduct of 
the War investigate and falsify with such nice 
precision the conduct of McClellan and his 
friends, and overlook the volumes of charges 
filed in the War Department against Fremont, 



and Sigel, and Hunter, and others, and en- 
tirely overlook the immense slaughter at Chan- 
cellorsville, and Fredericksburg, and south of 
the Rapidan ? Why did a secret political in- 
quisition, with no other pretext than that they 
suspected him of political ambition, sit over five 
hundred days, and manufacture over seventeen 
hundred pages of ex parte testimony against a 
young officer, a Christian gentleman, an honest 
man, who. Heaven only knows, never had but 
one purpose, and that, to serve his country and 
his God ? 

You know, Judge, that while in Washington, 
General McClellan studiously avoided all politi- 
cal association, and to sucli an extent that 
many of his friends of both parties were much 
offended. * 

The first knowledge that I ever had of any 
political ambition on his part, was after he liad 
been retired from active service and sent in 
disgrace to New Jersey ; and this was after his 
fitness for the succession liad been discovered 
by Mr. Lincoln, and the people had signified 
their affection for him. His letters and orders 
have been called political ; but they were emi- 
nently proper, and refer entirely to the mili- 
tary policy of the country. But, Judge, sup- 
pose Ave admit that General McOIellan had an 
ambition to be President of the United States, 
was it not a laudable ambition, and is there 
any impropriety in it ? Is the|field not open 
to him as well as to Mr. Lincoln, or Mi-. Fre- 
mont, or Mr. Chase, or the many others infin- 
itely his inferiors? So far as the objections to 
his military qualifications are concerned, we 
have only to remind you that, within the last 
sixty days, a confidential friend of the Presi- 
dent was sent to oti'er him one of the most im- 
portant commands of the army. But this 
proposition was coupled with the most dishon- 
orable condition— that he should decline to be 
a candidate for the Presidency. General Mc- 
Clellan restrained his indignation, and replied 
to the bearer of the message, " Go baok to 
AYashington and say to the President for me 
that when I receive my official, written orders, 
he shall have my answer." 

Beware, Judge, of the intemperate abnse of 
your political opponents, as proud and loyal as 
you are, who would rather see the continent 
"of America sink into the ocean, with all that 
dwells upon it, than see our nationality de- 
stroyed ; who will not endure this constant 
usurpation of authority and encroachment 
upon their rights, and whom you may drive 
into a dreadful conflict, in which the abolition- 
ist and the negro may find themselves arrayed 
against all who will unitedly stand, hand in 
liand, and shoulder to shoulder, in defence of 
tlie Constitution and the fundamental laws of 
the land. Very respectfully, 

HENRY M. NAGLEE. 
To Hon. Wm. D. Kklley, Philadelphia. 



THE ADDRESS TO THE ARMY AND NAVY, 

Adopted at Hope Chapel, 



on WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 28th, 1864, by the 



To the friends of George B. 3IcClellan in the army 
and navy of the United States : 

The approaching Presidential election, as well 
as your own noble efforts on land and on sea, 
will shortly decide the all-important question 
whether tliis Union of States, this glorious in- 
heritance, which alone gave the republic its 
illustrious station among the nations of the 
earth, shall be preserved. or ignominiously de- 
stroyed. 

Upon jow rests at this hour a responsibility 
far greater than upon any portion of the people 
of biie United States, Let it not be said, when 
the 8th of November has passed, tliat the sol- 
diers and sailors of the republic have neglected 
their duties as citizens of a free and constitu- 
tional community. 

We, your old comrades in arms, appeal to 
you, by the common ties of brotherhood, in 
the name of the thousands of fallen heroes, 
whose blood has been freely shed upon the 
altar of our country ; in the name of that 
Union to defend which, and which only, you 
entered the service and are now lighting tlie 
armed forces of our enemy ; in the name of all 
that is dear to us on earth, we appeal to you 
to deposit your votes as becomes the freemen 
and armed constitutional guardians of the re- 
public, unawed by fear, and untrammelled by 
any interference. 

In choosing between the candidates which 
the two political parties of the country have 
placed before us, for our suffrages, you will, 
not only as soldiers, but as citizens, readily un- 
derstand who is your natural friend, who will 
best promote your own interests and the holy 
cause for which you have pledged your lives. 
Major-Genoral George B. McClellan, the con> 
inander who has shared with you the dangers 
of battle, the fatigues of the march, the monot- 



ony of camp life, who, again and again, hasJed 
you to victory ; the officer, the patriot, the 
statesman, is to-day, as we honestly believe, 
-the only one under Providence, who can, if 
elected, restore the Union, and with it give us 
all once more peace and happiness in this now- 
distracted land. 

We call upon you to aid us in elevating pur 
old commander to that eminent position to 
which he is so deservedly entitled. j 

If elected to the Presidency of the United 
States, General McClellan will at once set to 
work, both in the cabinet and on the"tield, to 
restore this once glorious Union. Under his 
management this war will cease in a very few 
montJjS. His policy in conducting military 
operations — which is well known to you — is a 
sufficient guarantee that you -will, at an early- 
day, be permitted to return to your homes and 
firesides, there to receive tliose honors due to 
men wlio as soldiers have faithfully and steadi- 
ly resisted the onslaught of armed traitors on 
land and sea, and wlio as citizens, by casting 
their votes for George B. McClellan, have ma- 
terially aided in reestablishing our beloved 
country to its enviable position among the na- 
tions of the earth. Eemeniber the following 
noble words which General McClellan ad- 
dressed to the Army of the Potomac, when he* 
parted from those comrades whom he l^ved so 
much. He said : 

" In you I have never found doubt or cold- 
ness. The battles you have fought under my 
command will proudly live in our nation's liis- 
tory. The gloiy you have achieved, our mu- 
tual perils and fatigues, the graves of our com- 
rades fallen in battle and by disease, the broken 
forms of those whom wounds and sickness have 
disabled — the strongest associations which ex- 
ist among men — unite us still by|an indissoluble 



« 



tie. We shall ever be comrades in supporting 
tlie Constitution of our country and the nation- 
ality of its people." 

The commander and statesman who spoke 
thus to his fellow-soldiers two years ago, knows 
that, to-day^ ho can still "look upon you all as 
comrades. lie is, and ever has been, the great 
defender of our Constitutional Union, *ind 
thinks only of the good of the whole country, 

"It was in this cause and with these mo- 
tives," our candidate truly said in his West 
Point oration, ''that so many of our comrades 
gave their live^; and to this we are all per- 
sonally pledged in all honor and fidelity. Shall 
such a devotion (he asked) as that of our dead 
comrades be of no avail ? Shall it be said in 
after ages that we lacked the vigor to complete 
the work thusbegun ? — that, after all these no- 
ble lives freely given, we hesitated, and failed to 
keep straight on until our land was saved ? For- 
bid it. Heaven, and give us firmer, truer hearts 
t^an that, that none may doubt the salvation 
of the republic and the triumph of our grand 
old flag." 

Again, in his letter of acceptance, you fel- 
lc»v soldiei's are thus spoken of: "I could not 
look in the face my gallant comrades of the 
army and navy, who have survived so many 
bloody battles, and tell them that their labor 
and sacrifice of so many of our slain and 
wounded brethren had been in vain ; that we 
bad abandoned that Union for which we had 
so often perilled our lives. A vast mnjority of 
our people, whether in the army or navy or at 
home, would, as I would, hail with unbounded 
joy the permanent restoration of peace on the 
basis of the Union under the Constitution 
without the eifusion of another drop of blood, 
but no peace can be permanent without Union." 

" The Union at all hazards,'''' is McClellan's 
motto. It is yours, and it is ours. It is to-day 
the watch \voi*d of all who love their country, 
its constitutional guarantees and liberties. It 
will bo the rallying cry, both in and out of the 



army, among all those who deposit their votes 
for George E. McOlellan. 

Kally around him, then, ofiicers, soldiers and 
sailors, and assist us all in reestablishing the 
Union. Let us prove that we are still and ever 
will be General McClellan's comrades " in sup- 
porting the Constitution of our country and the 
nationality of its people." 



McCLELLAN SONQ. 

By Major Sidney Herbert, a membor of the Legion. 

The McOlellan legion. 

In every region, 
Comprises the brave and the true ; 

They have fought aid bled — 

No more need be said — 
'Neath our flag of Red, White, and Blue. 

They still honor the name 

And revere the fame 
Of the hero who led them to war, 

And ne'er will they give, 

So long as they live, 
A vote that his record shall mar. 

Let traitors defame him, 
And fanatics blame him, 

And still seek to set him aside ; 

We'll soon let them know, 
By the votes that we throw, 

That he's still our hope and our pride. 
Comrades now in the field, 
Who our liberties shield, 

We send you a greeting to-night ; 
Forget not the past, 
But be your votes cast, 

" Little Mac," Union and Right. 



